Alumni Spotlight

Neither of us had family backgrounds in architecture, but we were both drawn to it as a profession – Donn had an affinity for making and studied at Letterfrack, in the Furniture Design and Manufacturing school designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey before entering UCD School of Architecture. Elspeth had been redesigning her house on graph paper from the age of 8.

We both loved studying at Richview – the atmosphere of productivity and creative freedom was fantastic. Being that bit removed from the main campus, and working together in one large studio fostered a dynamic energy and sense of community – although it could get noisy, it had a great atmosphere. Our closest friends to this day are friends we made at Richview.

We were also very fortunate to have an amazing teaching staff during our time at UCD Architecture – some of the foremost architects in the country, including Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, Emmett Scanlon, Michael Pike, Mark Price and Mary Laheen, sharing their knowledge and experience with us.

Studying architecture requires a huge commitment. The irregular hours, intensity of the work, and looming deadlines meant it was difficult to get involved with student societies and clubs. We did make time to socialise, but apart from the few students who had mastered time management it was difficult to find the time for organised sports and societies.

From what we have seen, UCD is a school which produces extremely high quality graduates, with a crafted and civic approach to architecture. Close friends of ours whose careers have taken different paths have spoken about how they have also benefited from their architectural studies – it is an all-round education which covers a broad range of subjects including philosophy, art, economics and sociology.

Moving Overseas

We moved to Hong Kong two and three years after graduating – in the midst of the recession. Our move wasn’t entirely prompted by a lack of jobs at home – Donn was working with Grafton Architects and O’Donnell Tuomey, and Elspeth was working at Paul Keogh Architects – we were also seeking new experiences and were open to where those experiences might take us. Donn had applied for a position as Assistant Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong in January 2014, and received an offer in July asking him to be there the following week!

Neither of us had ever been to Hong Kong before our move but were excited by the prospect of living and working somewhere so far removed from what we knew, and in a part of the world that is changing and evolving at such a rapid pace. Our move was made a lot easier by a few good friends and fellow UCD architecture alumni who had been living in the city for a few years at that point, so we had a lot of moral support and advice when we arrived initially.

Elspeth worked on a freelance basis for about a year when we first arrived in the city – gaining experience and meeting people, before taking a position with London/Hong Kong studio Bean Buro for just over two years. The architecture scene in the city is quite different from at home – there is little opportunity for new builds other than developer-led tower blocks, as land is very strictly zoned, therefore many architects find their niche within the interior design landscape.

Our work today

We founded our practice Superposition, as a collaborative, interdisciplinary architecture and design studio. Our work is characterised by an ethical framework combined with a detail orientated and contextual approach to design at a wide range of scales.

Over the past few years, we have been working in China with rural communities and students, and at the University of Hong Kong developing a series of projects and studies that focus on the integration of material, technology and robotics with broader social and environmental issues.

We are currently working on a number of projects in China, Hong Kong and Ireland, including a furniture design and manufacturing project with a rural Chinese village weaving cooperative, a self build modular house in collaboration with a furniture maker – where each modular element is designed so that it can be made in his workshop and assembled on site, and an ongoing revitalisation project which Donn is running at HKU together with a rural village facing modernisation. We work to ensure that each project is approached in a culturally sensitive, sustainable and innovative way.

Although they may seem diametrically opposed, China and Ireland are facing similar issues in terms of architecture and planning at the moment – particularly in relation to the dislocation from our tangible and intangible cultural heritage, erosion of communities, the decline of the rural and increasing urbanization. In addition, the realisation that the way we are currently building is not sustainable, and the search for new methods of procurement, development and sustainable material systems.

Future Plans

Ireland’s construction industry seems to be recovering and it is remarkable to watch things happening from a slight remove. It is a bit disheartening however to see the same developers names coming back around again and the desire to see property prices return to boom levels expressed in the national newspapers. We would love to work more in Ireland, and will perhaps make a return in the near future, but we would be interested to see if we could continue our practice in the same vein we have been working – in an alternative, more publicly engaged and collaborative capacity.

Your School

Useful Links

There is no better training for students than in Richview, the home of architecture in UCD. This space includes design studios, a well-equipped workshop and building laboratory, exhibition spaces and the most extensive architectural library in the country.

Students are also in the most capable hands here, among the expert faculty are Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Royal Gold Medal 2015 awardees Sheila O’Donnell and Professor John Tuomey, both of whom are also graduates of the School.

A gift to the UCD Annual Fund can enable us to award scholarships to students who would typically be excluded from third level education.

Newman is a multi-storey mixture of the arts and social sciences. With lecture theatres that can house up to 500 students as well as smaller spaces for tutorials, students can share ideas with both their peers and their tutors. Whether it be current politics, history or literature there are a wide array of topics up for debate and discussion.

A gift to the UCD Annual Fund can enable us to award scholarships to students who would typically be excluded from third level education.

UCD also hopes to bring Newman in to the future with a regeneration project that aims to provide students with a student centered academic facility that strengthens the disciplines and schools identity.

The James Joyce Library receives on average one million visits per year. Behind these doors there is vast study space amongst hundreds of books and academic journals. The library’s special collections houses the first documentation of the Flight of the Earls, a letter written to Éamon de Valera as well as numerous manuscripts by some of Ireland’s most celebrated writers such as Frank McGuinness, Edna O’Brien, and Maeve Binchy.

The library’s doors remain open to our alumni long after they graduate, with many retaining membership, your support will enable us to continue to replenish our shelves and preserve our rich cultural heritage.

Redevelopment of the existing James Joyce Library aims to provide a range of modern study and active learning spaces with centralised student-facing support services, in addition to cultural, heritage and public engagement spaces.

The UCD Student Centre is home to the UCD Student Union which aims to promote student wellbeing on campus be it mental health, disability rights, mature students or accommodation support. The UCDSU provides free counselling services as well as running life skills courses for students suffering from depression or anxiety.

Each of the seven schools in the UCD College of Science engages in exciting and internationally recognised research. Research includes drug discovery, development and delivery which aim to identify biomarkers, novel therapeutic targets to guide drug development and target medicines toward specific populations.

Gifts to the UCD Annual Fund can enable us to provide scholarships to undergraduate students to study in the field of science which can lead onto working in areas of research that will benefit us all.

The UCD Sutherland School of Law is the largest law school in the country and opened its doors in 2013 but originally dates back to 1911. Notable alumni include Alumni Award winner Maeve O’Rourke (BCL 2009) who works closely with Dr Katherine O’Donnell and Claire McGettrick of UCD on the Justice for Magdalenes campaign.

Gifts to UCD’s Annual fund can enable us to provide scholarships to students from a variety of backgrounds that would typically exclude them from participating in third level education.